The World Studies Collections contains seven collections regarding general area studies for all regions of the world excluding Florida, the United States and the Caribbean. Collections within this collection group can be roughly placed in two categories.

The first category represents general area studies and includes the Africana Collection, the Asian Studies Collection, the European Studies Collection, and the South American Collection. Materials covering Florida and the United States are found throughout all the collections found in this digital library and materials specific to the Caribbean can be found in the seperate, collaborative Digital Library of the Caribbean.

Several collections represent more narrow studies. The Jaqi Collection contains linguistic resource materials for the study of Aymara, Jaqaru, and Kawki. The Spanish Borderlands Collection contains information about the early history of the Spanish New World. The Rossica Collection contains historical documents and journals published by the Rossica Society of Russian Philately.